A 3 YEAR FOLLOW-UP OF ATTACHMENT AND INDISCRIMINATE FRIENDLINESS IN CHILDREN ADOPTED FROM ROMANIAN ORPHANAGES

Attachment and indiscriminately friendly behavior were assessed in chi ldren who had spent at least 8 months in a Romanian orphanage (RO) and two comparison groups of children: a Canadian-born, nonadopted, never institutionalized comparison group (CB) and an early adopted comparis on group adopted from Romania before the age of 4 months (EA). Attachm ent was assessed using 2 measures: an attachment security questionnair e based on parent report, and a Separation Reunion procedure that was coded using the preschool Assessment of Attachment. Indiscriminately f riendly behavior was examined using parents' responses to 5 questions about their children's behavior with new adults. Although RO children did not score differently from either CB or EA children on the attachm ent security measure based on parent report, they did display signific antly more insecure attachment patterns than did children in the other 2 groups. In addition, RO children displayed significantly more indis criminately friendly behavior than both CB and EA children, who did no t differ in terms of indiscriminate friendliness. RO children's insecu re attachment patterns were not associated with any aspect of their in stitutional environment, but were related to particular child and fami ly characteristics. Specifically, insecure RO children had more behavi or problems, scored lower on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, an d had parents who reported significantly more parenting stress than RO children classified as secure.